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Topic: Souvenirs From Travels (Read 4933 times)

I'm a picture taker. So my "souvenir" is to share all of my pictures with friends and family. I will typically offer 10-20 pics that people can download. The rest are viewing only.

I do like to shop, but I shop for myself, not for other people. When I go out of the country I tend to buy things like jewelry or accessories, so I can wear it. If I'm traveling domestically, I don't buy much, if anything at all.

I buy shot glasses and magnets. Including cool airports, because that is the only place the Air Force sends me half of the time. I also try to find cool local stuff if I am in a country more than a layover's worth of time.

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My inner (r-word) is having a field day with this one.-Love is Evol: Christopher Titus-

I'd like to bring something small to my family or friends but the last times I've traveled I haven't managed it and have felt slightly guilty. I dislike actual souvenirs but like things like small soaps made with local sheep's milk that were shaped like sheep I got from a Dutch island, small and consumable seems to be best. Or a rock or something, the best souvenir I've ever gottten was possibly a giant pine cone a friend brought me.

My father used to travel quite a lot when I was a child and we would give him lists of cds and comic books and things like that that were difficult to find in our home town then (a comic book store in San Francisco in late 90s was apparently quite surprised to hear that two Finnish girls had looked up their address online and sent their father there with a list of Sandman comics). We're adults now and he still sometimes brings something from his travels but often it's something a bit strange like the time I got four mini pie dishes and thermos bottle from Ikea from their trip to Northern Sweden, I live a few kilometers from Ikea myself.

I buy tons of souvenirs. Work gets cheap trinkets but I must say the Hanbok wearing Teddy bear cellphone trinkets I got for everyone when in South Korea were the best gift ever ; most of them still have them and cherish them.

Friends get better stuff like the wallhangings made by Kuna Indians in Panama. Same with family.

My boss mainly gets chocolate; he is a huge chocoholic.

For myself I buy what I like whether it is a nice bright purple silk purse from Bellagio, Italy or a cheap but pretty Venetian mask magnet. And lots of tee shirts.

The pinecone I got from my friend was from Ireland and after Finland joined EU so it was easier with customs. Finnish customs is more interested in alcohol and tobacco products and collecting taxes and the laws aren't as strict as in other places but there are rules for importanting plants and parts of them. Within EU there seem to be a few restrictions, outside EU there are more. For foods there seem to be less rules (though you can only bring one fish from certain countries outside the EU or 2 kilos of frog legs. And too bad if an American tourist wants to bring their own cheese with them, it's not allowed). So obviously that sort of souvenirs only work if they're legal.

True. The USA, especially California and Florida are very strict about plants. Understandably, they don't want to expose themselves to diseases and pests that could damage their crops.

On cruises, many first-time passengers try to take fruit off the ship for a snack on the flight home. Even through the fruit was originally taken aboard in Florida, bringing it back in is strictly verboten.

I don't travel, sadly. however, this thread brought back a memory. When I was a very little girl, my grandma was still well enough to travel, and she used to often go to florida. She would bring back two sets of gifts. One set for us little ones, and one for the older cousins. The one I remember most? A cup that was a cartoony alligator!

I have greatly reduced the number of books I buy when I travel, since there are few books you can't get online now but I keep my eye out for locally published stuff - short stories, local folklore, etc. My big score was a book of local recipes from Mexico, written down by some of the older women in a small town, in a kind of "church recipe book".

We generally don't bring back souvenirs for others. Last year, our family vacation was a reunion and heavily subsidsized by my mom. We were in Southhaven Michigan which is famous for its blueberries, so I bought mom a nice gift basket of blueberry items. She appreciated it.

We like to find Christmas tree ornaments that reflect the area we're in to bring back. Small and a lot of fun to remember vacations when we decorate the tree every eyar.

I really dislike touristy gifts given by others. I don't want or need magnets, shotglasses, tshirts or mugs. To me I think it's silly to have a momento of "INSERT CITY NAME HERE" when I, in fact, never visited said city. The only souvenirs I've enjoyed were gifts I would have enjoyed no matter where they were purchased. My mom got me a Waterman fountain pen from Paris, and some irish lace in Dublin. My SIL brought me back a cd from Italy of an italian artist that is not sold here in the US. I liked those gifts because it told me that the giver knew me and what I would like.